1846 - 1886 . 



V 

HISTORY 


OF THE 



NEW Y0^K: 

PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. 
Office, 56 Reade Street. 




















CONTENTS. 


Page. 

Organization and Early Labors, ------ 3 

Among the Negroes, --------- 5 

Preliminary Educational Work, ----- 5 

Permanent Educational Institutions, - - - 8 

Churches in the South, ------- 9 

Mountain Work, - . .. - - - - - -11 

The Indians, --------- 12 

Transfer of Missidns, - - - - - - -12 

Chinese in America, - 16 

Bureau of Woman’s Wotk, - - - - - - -17 

Finances, --------- 19 

Officers of the Association, - - - . - - - 21 

Statistics for 1885—Wants, 


24 






tfrarttj Houles of fp.isst*roa**j ^sttov. 

1846 - 1886 . 


HISTORY 


OF THE 


mcriran j) raimtarj Isssociation. 


jMEW Y0^K: 

PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. 
Office, 56 Reade Street. 


1886. 








7 64 - 

jlmeijitait ftbsiomnjij Jtasormlion, 


56 READE STREET, NEW YORK. 


OFFICERS t 


President. 

Hon. Wm. B. Washburn, LL.D., Mass. 


Vice-Presidents. 

*Rev. C. L. Goodell, D.D.,Mo. Rev. F. A. Noble, D.D., Ill. 

Rev. A. J. F. Behrends, D.D., N. Y. Rev. Alex. McKenzie, D.D., Mass. 

Rev. D. O. Mears, D.D., Mass. 


Corresponding Secretary. 

Rev. M. E. Strieby, D.D., 56 Reade St., New York. 


Associate Corresponding Secretaries. 

Rev. James Powell, D.D., j ;w- PW York 

Rev. A. F. Beard, D.D., f &b Keade YoTk - 


Recording Secretary. 

Rev. M. E. Strieby, D.D., 56 Reade St., New York. 
Treasurer. 

H. W. Hubbard, 56 Reade St., New York. 


Auditors. 

W. H. Rogers. Peter McCartee. 


Executive Committee. 
John H. Washburn, Chairman. 


For Three Years. 

J. E. Rankin. 

Wm. H. Ward. 

J. L. Withrow. 

John H. Washburn. 
Edmund L. Champlin . 


For Two Years. 
Lyman Abbott. 
A. S. Barnes. 

J. R. Danforth. 
Clinton B. Fisk. 
A. P. Foster. 


A. P. Foster, Secretary. 
For One Year. 

S. B. Halliday. 
Samuel Holmes. 
Samuel S. Marples. 
Charles L. Mead. 
Elbert B. Monroe. 


District Secretaries. 

Rev. C. L. Woodworth, D.D., 21 Congregational House, Boston. 
Rev. J. E. Roy, D.D., 151 Washington Street, Chicago. 

Financial Secretary for Indian Missions. 

Rev. Charles W. Shelton. 


Field Superintendent. 

Rev C. J. Ryder, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Bureau of Woman's Work. 

Miss D. E. Emerson, Secretary, 56 Reade St., New York. 


DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS 

may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York ; or, 
when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House, 
Boston, Mass., or 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty 
dollars constitutes a Life Member 

communications 

relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the Corresponding 
Secretaries ; letters for the “American Misionary ” to the Editor, at the New 
York Office. 

* Deceased. 


GIFT 

ANNA L. DWES 

SEPT. 17 1936 






•s FORTY YEARS OF MISSIONARY LABOR.* 


HISTOEY 

OF THE 

American Missionary Association. 


ORGANIZATION AND EARLY LABORS. 

The American Missionary Association was formed in Albany, 
N. Y., September 3, 1846, in the early days of organized resistance, 
religious and political, to the supreme domination of slavery. Its 
object as stated in its Constitution is : “ To conduct Christian mis¬ 
sionary and educational operations, and diffuse a knowledge of the 
Holy Scriptures in our own and other countries." Its endeavor to 
discountenance slavery was “ by refusing to receive the known fruits 
of unrequited labor or to welcome to its employment those who 
hold their fellow-beings as slaves.” It was preceded by four recently 
established missionary organizations, which were subsequently 
merged into it. They'were the result of the growing dissatisfac¬ 
tion with the comparative silence of the older missionary* societies 
in regard to slavery, and were a protest against it. The first of 
these organizations was the Amistad Committee, formed to secure 
counsel to defend the forty-two Negroes who had risen upon their 
captors, and had mastered the Spanish slave schooner “ Amistad ” 
that was bearing them into slavery. They were tried for. murder 
before the United States Supreme Court, and after a long contest 
were pronounced free. They were instructed for a time at Farm¬ 
ington, Conn., by Prof. Geo. E. Day, D.D., and were finally sent 
by the Committee to their native land, accompanied by three 
missionaries, who thus founded the Mendi Mission, West Africa. 
The other missionary organizations were the Union Missionary 
Society, formed in Hartford, Conn., under whose care the infant 




4 


HISTORY OF THE 


mission at Mendi was for a time placed ; the Committee for West* 
India Missions among the recently emancipated slaves of 
Jamaica; and the Western Evangelical Missionary Society 
for work among the American Indians. 

EARLY LABORS. 

The American Missionary Association thus organized, and 
having received the funds and missions of these societies, entered, 
upon its work with vigor, strengthening the missions already be¬ 
gun and establishing or accepting the care of others. 

In the Foreign field, in addition to the missions received from 
the societies named, it took under its care one missionary in the 
Sandwich Islands, two in Siam, and a number of missionaries and 
teachers laboring among the colored refugees in Canada—so that 
in its Foreign Department in 1854 its laborers numbered seventy- 
nine, located in Africa, Jamaica, the Sandwich Islands, Siam,. 
Egypt among the Copts, Canada among the colored refugees, 
and in North America among the Indians. 

The Home Department embraced two distinct fields, the West 
and the South, and the largest number of home missionary work¬ 
ers employed by the Association was 112 in i860, fifteen of them 
being located in the slave States and in Kansas. In the West¬ 
ern field the work was conducted with a special view to preaching 
the Gospel free from all complicity with slavery and caste, and the 
missionaries and churches aided were such as bore decided testi¬ 
mony against both. The laborers in the Western field in i860 were 
located as follows : In States east of Ohio, 15 ; in Ohio, Indiana and 
Michigan, 35 ; in Illinois, 23 ; in Wisconsin and Minnesota, 14 ; 
in Iowa, 10. The missions in the slave States gave rise to some of 
the most stirring events in the history of the Association, which 
has the distinction of beginning the first decided efforts, while 
slavery existed, to organize churches and schools in the South, on 
an avowedly anti-slavery basis. These efforts were necessarily 
confined to the white people, for in the domain of slavery, anti¬ 
slavery churches and schools for the blacks were impossibilities. 
Rev. John G. Fee was the pioneer in this movement. A Ken¬ 
tuckian by birth, the son of a slaveholder, disinherited by his 
father on account of his anti-slavery principles, he collected a. 
church of non-slaveholders, and applied to the American Mission¬ 
ary Association for aid. The Association was ready to welcome 
such a man, and gave him a commission, dated October 10, 1848.. 


AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. 


5 


Mr. Fee’s labors were abundant. He preached in many places 
and organized a second non-slaveholding church. Sunday-schools 
and day-schools were established. The beginnings were made of 
what has since become Berea College. He was repeatedly mobbed, 
sometimes almost miraculously delivered, yet finally driven to the 
North for a time. 

Rev. Daniel Worth, born in North Carolina, attempted the same 
work in that State, preaching to six small non-slaveholding churches. 
He was threatened, arrested, tried (pleading his own cause), fined 
and imprisoned. In Kansas, the missions of the Association bore 
the brunt of the border-ruffian raids. In October, 1859, came the 
march of John Brown into Virginia, bringing universal terror to 
the South, and with it the expulsion of all our missionaries from 
the slave States. 


AMONG THE NEGROES. 

The crisis so long impending came at length, and the Union 
armies, entering the South in 1861, opened the way for the instruc¬ 
tion and elevation of the colored people. The Association felt 
itself specially called and providentially prepared to engage in this 
work. It had, in 1859, relinquished its Indian and Coptic missions, 
and during the four years of the war it withdrew its missionaries 
from the West and from Canada, and concentrated its energies upon 
this new field in the South. 

PRELIMINARY EDUCATIONAL WORK. 

BEGINNINGS. 

The Northern armies found a surprising thirst for knowledge 
among the Negroes ; and chaplains and Christian officers and sol¬ 
diers became, to a limited extent, their teachers. But the first sys¬ 
tematic effort for their relief and instruction was made by the Amer- 
can Missionary Association. Large numbers of “contrabands,” 
or escaping fugitive slaves, were gathered at Fortress Monroe and 
Hampton, Va., and in consequence of the burning of the latter 
place, were homeless and destitute. The Association commissioned 
Rev. L. C. Lockwood as a missionary, and sent him to make inves¬ 
tigations. He reached Hampton September 3, 1861, and in the 
evening found a number of colored people assembled for prayer. 



6 


HISTORY OF THE 


They hailed his coming as the answer to their supplications, and 
the next day arrangements were made for meetings in several, 
places, the house of ex-President Tyler being one of them. A 
Sabbath-school was opened in that house on the 15th—a new use 
for that mansion, and a new era for the colored people. Other 
Sunday-schools soon followed. Appeals were promptly made by 
the Association and relief was furnished in food and clothing. 

But the great event in Mr. Lockwood’s mission was that on the 
17th of September, 1861, he established the first day-school among 
the freedmen. The teacher of that humble school was Mrs. Mary 
S. Peake, an intelligent Christian woman. Her mother was a free 
colored woman, her father, an educated Englishman. That little 
school laid the foundation for the Hampton Institute, and was the 
harbinger of the hundreds that have followed. The school-house 
stood on the coast where, two hundred and forty-one years before, 
the first slave-ship entered the line of the American continent. 
That first slave-ship and this first Negro school will hereafter be 
contrasted as the initiators of two widely different eras—of bar¬ 
barism and of civilization. This beginning was followed by other 
schools and with religious services. 

During the year 1862, the Association extended its schools and 
religious efforts at Hampton and vicinity, and it shared with sev¬ 
eral temporary organizations that soon sprang up in the distribu¬ 
tion of clothing and supplies among the destitute. It opened a 
school at Norfolk, founded two schools at Newport News and 
aided in the work of relief on the Port Royal Islands. In May,, 
it began a mission among the colored people who crowded Wash¬ 
ington City, and before the year closed, at Cairo, Ill., where these 
people had begun to gather in large numbers. 

EMANCIPATION—THE WIDE DOOR OPENED. 

The Proclamation of Emancipation, dated January 1, 1863, in¬ 
sured the permanent freedom of those who reached the Union 
lines. A sense of justice to the long-oppressed slave awoke an 
enthusiasm at the North, second only to that which impelled the 
soldiers to enter the army. Hundreds of ladies, refined and 
educated, many of them teachers in Northern schools, volunteered 
their services. Clothing and supplies were offered in large quan¬ 
tities, and Freedmen’s Aid Societies were multiplied. 

The American Missionary Association rapidly extended its work. 
At Norfolk, the solitary school of the previous year received an 


AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. 


7 


enlargement beyond precedent. The number in the day-school 
was as high as 1,200, of whom 25 only were adults; but in the 
night-schools, after the fatigues of the day, 400 grown people 
were seen, making half of the 800 in attendance. In the three 
Sabbath-schools there were 1,500, of whom 500 were adults. On 
many plantations around Norfolk, abandoned by the white owners 
but still occupied by the ex-slaves, the Association opened schools 
and preached the Gospel. The estate of Ex-Governor Wise was 
thus occupied, and his mansion was used as a school-house and a 
home for teachers of colored people. Teachers were also sent to 
Newbern and Roanoke Island, N. C.; to Beaufort, Hilton Head, 
St. Helena and Ladies’ Island, S. C., and to St. Louis, Mo. 

The success of our arms on the Mississippi, culminating in f the 
surrender of Vicksburg, July 4th, opened a wide door of useful¬ 
ness and charity, which the Association entered promptly and effi¬ 
ciently. Missionaries and teachers were sent to Columbus, Ky., 
Cairo, Ill., Memphis^ Tenn., President Island, and Camps Fisk 
and Shiloh. The progress in 1864 is indicated by the fact that the 
Association employed 250 missionaries and teachers, instead of 83 
the year before. This force was scattered over the field, held by 
our armies in the District of Columbia, Virginia, North Carolina, 
South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mis¬ 
sissippi, Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas. 

CLOSE OF THE WAR—FREEDMEN’s BUREAU—BOSTON COUNCIL. 

The year 1865 was marked by events of more than usual im¬ 
portance to the Freedmen and the Association. Prominent among 
these were the close of the war ; the establishment, by Act of 
Congress, of the Freedmen’s Bureau, which distributed in various 
ways, in aid of the Freedmen, $12,965,395.40 ; and the holding of a 
National Council of Congregational Churches in Boston, which 
recommended to the churches to raise $250,000 for the work among 
the Freedmen, and designated this Association as the organization 
providentially fitted to carry it forward. This generous indorse¬ 
ment induced the Association to enlarge its administrative force, 
and to prepare itself for still wider operations in the field. It ap¬ 
pointed District Secretaries at Chicago, Cincinnati and Boston, and 
collecting agents in other portions of the Northern States. It also 
secured the services of several esteemed ministers of the Gospel 
who acted as its representatives in soliciting funds in Great Britain. 


8 


HISTORY OF THE 


CONFLICTING INFLUENCES. 

At the North the joy over the close of the war, and the obvious 
duty it owed to the millions of emancipated slaves, together with 
the sympathy of anti-slavery friends in Great Britain, made it easy 
for the Association to obtain the $250,000 recommended by 
the National Council. The Freedmen’s Bureau also began to 
make liberal grants for the erection of school buildings for the use 
of the Freedmen, and thus the resources at the command of the 
Association were greatly increased. Its receipts from all sources ran 
up from $47,828 in 1861 to $253,045 in 1866, and $420,769 in 1870. 

But in the South there was growing discontent, culminating in 
the reign of terror under the infamous Ku-Klux Klans—the 
Thugs of America. The colored people were often assaulted by 
mobs, dragged from their homes at midnight, and shot down in 
the streets. Our missionaries and teachers were to some extent 
the objects of embittered hate and ruffianly threats, but God 
mercifully protected them and made them moral supporters of 
their flocks and schools. There was no want of courage on their 
part to enter or remain in the field ; the number of teachers, 
which was 320 in 1865, was enlarged to 528 in 1867, and 532 in 
1868, and 533 in 1870! 

PERMANENT EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 

It was during this very period that the beginnings were made 
for most of our permanent educational institutions. The call was 
imperative. The vast numbers of the colored people indicated 
that they must become largely their own educators ; the astonish¬ 
ing progress of the pupils proved that they were capable of it. 
Hence the policy of the Association began to take definite shape ; 
it must train the teachers and preachers for this people. Its teach¬ 
ers were accordingly withdrawn from the primary schools in great 
measure, and graded and normal schools, colleges, incipient uni¬ 
versities and theological classes were established—the design being 
to plant a school of high grade in each of the principal cities or 
centres of population, and one college or university in each of the 
large Southern States. The increased resources of the Associa¬ 
tion enabled it to begin the work, and both the resources and the 
work have been largely supplemented by the energy of Gen. Arm¬ 
strong at Hampton, the enterprise of Berea College, the touching 
songs of the Jubilee Singers, the munificence of Mrs. Valeria G. 


AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. 


9 


Stone, the gifts of Mr. Tillotson and others, so that the Association 
can now point to the eight larger Southern States thus furnished with 
chartered institutions : Virginia, Hampton Institute*; Kentucky, 
Berea College*; Georgia, Atlanta University*; Tennessee, Fisk 
University ; Alabama, Talladega College ; Mississippi, Tougaloo 
University ; Louisiana, Straight University; Texas, Tillotson In¬ 
stitute. Normal and graded schools with excellent buildings are 
located at Wilmington, N. C.; Charleston and Greenwood, S. C.; 
Savannah, McIntosh, Atlanta and Macon, Ga.; Mobile, Selma and 
Athens, Ala.; Memphis and Jonesboro, Tenn.: Lexington and 
Williamsburg, Ky., together with 36 common and parochial schools 
scattered over nine of the Southern States. 

Theological Departments have been established in Howard 
University, Fisk University, Talladega College and Straight Uni¬ 
versity, with an aggregate of 96 students. The Law Department 
of Straight University has 67 students, colored and white. Indus¬ 
trial instruction, so fully illustrated at Hampton, was early intro¬ 
duced into many of our schools, and has been constantly extended. 
Talladega College and Tougaloo University have large farms 
attached, which furnish means for practical instruction in farming. 
In all the larger institutions and normal schools, mechanical arts 
are taught to the boys, and household work, cooking, sewing, wash¬ 
ing, nursing, etc., to the girls. The Slater fund renders aid to 
these industrial departments. 

CHURCHES IN THE SOUTH. 

CHURCH PLANTING. 

Simultaneously with the founding of these permanent institutions 
the Association began the planting of churches among the Freed- 
men. These were organized with caution, more solicitude being 
felt as to character than number. They were formed mainly in 
-connection with the educational institutions, and were intended to 
be models of true Christian and church life. The work of church 
planting has been pressed forward with a steady hand until the 
churches now number 112, located in nearly all the States of the 
South. The growth has been encouraging. The Annual Report 

* Hampton Institute and Berea College are under the management of their 
own boards of trustees, and the relation of the Association to them is that 
of parental interest and not of control. The Atlanta University is supported 
largely by the State of Georgia, and is governed by its own board of trustees. 





IO 


HISTORY OF THE 


for 1882 says : “ Through these seventeen years since the war our 
churches have come on from two or three to number 83. Nor are 
these merely skeleton churches. Every one of these 83 has a 
pastor, except one whose pastor died recently. Of the 73 minis¬ 
ters who serve these churches, 22 are from the North and 51 are 
native preachers. Every one of these churches, except seven, owns 
its own house of worship or chapel. Some of these are rude in 
structure ; the most are plain ; five or six are of brick and are of 
commanding appearance. Nor for young churches are these 
deficient in numbers. They have an average membership of 68, 
while the average membership of the Congregational churches 
west of the Mississippi River is only 45, and of all west of Penn¬ 
sylvania, 63.” The last Annual Report (1885) says : “Hereto¬ 
fore the average number of churches organized each year has been 
six. 1’his year the number runs up to seventeen. Of the 89 
pastors who have ministered to our 112 churches, 30 were from the 
North and 59 were raised up in our own institutions in the South.” 

SUNDAY-SCHOOLS—TEMPERANCE—REVIVALS. 

Sunday-schools constitute a leading and permanent feature of 
the work of the Association. All its churches and educational 
institutions not only maintain their own Sunday-schools, but seek 
to establish others in the outlying districts. They are a most 
efficient means of church extension. 

Temperance efforts are systematically made. Text-books on the 
principles of temperance are introduced as a part of the regular 
course of study, and lectures, addresses, periodicals and temper¬ 
ance organizations are employed in every available way to prevent 
the growth of intemperance and to reform the inebriate. 

Revivals of Religion are sought earnestly in both schools and 
churches, and suitable means are used to promote them. The 
Head of the Church has graciously blessed these efforts in the 
conversion of souls. For the last two years the Rev. J. C. Fields 
has been employed as an evangelist with gratifying results. 

FELLOWSHIP OF THE CHURCHES. 

The churches under the care of the Association in the South are 
distributed from Hampton in Virginia to Corpus Christi in Texas. 
But they are not without fellowship. Conferences or Associations 
have been formed, and of these there are now eight, designated as 
the Conferences of Kentucky, Central South, North Carolina, 


AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. 


II 


Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Southwest Texas. 
They have an average of eleven churches, and at their meetings 
there is the attendance, the order, the glow, the missionary 
enthusiasm that belong to the communion of the churches. 


MOUNTAIN WORK. 

The early labors of the Association in Home Mission work 
were directed to the white people of the West and South. When 
the prison doors of the slaves were opened its attention was 
largely concentrated upon the blacks, both because they were so 
needy and so accessible. But the Association never lost its sense 
of responsibility to the whites. The Mountain Region of the Cen¬ 
tral South presented a promising opening for reaching them. It 
embraces southwestern Virginia, southeastern Kentucky, western 
North Carolina, eastern- Tennessee, and portions of northern 
Georgia and northern Alabama. It is 500 miles long and 200 
miles wide, and contains a population of about 2,000,000, seven- 
eighths of whom are white. Berea College had already in a por¬ 
tion of that region won the victory over all caste distinctions on 
account of race or color, and the way was open for the Association 
to enter that field. At length the fit man was found to inaugurate 
the work. Rev. A. A. Myers organized a church in Williams¬ 
burg, Ky., in 1881, among the mountains of that beautiful State. 
By his indomitable energy and his great skill in securing the co-op¬ 
eration of the people, he moved them to aid him in putting up a 
commodious house of worship. The town was sixty years old, 
and this was the first church edifice brought to completion, three 
others having rotted down, unfihished. The next year a building 
was erected for an Academy, and the school was opened. The 
members of the church and the pupils of the school were white, 
there being very few colored people in the county. The color 
question was tested, and after a struggle similar to that which 
Berea had encountered, the result sustained the right of the 
colored race to equal privileges in church and school. Churches, 
preaching stations or schools have been established along or near 
the lines of railroads traversing the mountain districts of Ken¬ 
tucky and Tennessee, and sweeping nearly across both States : in 
Kentucky at Williamsburg, South Williamsburg, Pleasant View, 



12 


HISTORY OF THE 


Rockhold, Lynn Camp, Liberty, Mahan Station, Dowlais, Saxton 
-and Grey Hawk ; in Tennessee at Robbins, Hellenwood, Jellico, 
Pomona, Grand View arid Pleasant Hill. The Sunday-school 
work throughout these districts renders most efficient service 
in laying the foundation for churches and day-schools, and in pro¬ 
moting the cause of temperance. No portion of our wide field 
opens more invitingly than this mountain region. 


THE INDIANS. 

EARLY LABORS. 

Some of the earliest labors of the Association were among the 
Indians. The beginnings made by the Western Evangelical Mis¬ 
sionary Society and transmitted to it were enlarged and extended, 
until in 1852 it had 21 missionaries stationed among the Indians of 
the Northwest. Various causes conspired to the gradual diminu¬ 
tion of these missions, and in 1859 they* were abandoned. The 
supreme demand of the newly-emancipated slaves soon afterward 
-claimed, and almost of necessity, for the time absorbed, the care 
and strength of the Association. 

GENERAL GRANT’S PEACE POLICY. 

One feature of General Grant’s excellent Peace Policy adopted 
in 1870, was the attempt to secure honest and capable Indian 
agents. To this end he invited the religious and missionary bodies 
to nominate the agents. This Association accepted the duty, in 
"behalf of the Congregational churches, of nominating candidates 
for four agencies in 1870 and for eight in 1873, viz.: Chippewa 
and Red Lake, Minn.; Lake Superior and Green Bay, Wis.; Fort 
Berthold and Sisseton, Dak., and Skokomish, W. T., and among 
the Mission Indians in California; and while this feature of the 
Peace Policy was in force continued to select and nominate suitable 
persons for these agencies. 


TRANSFER OF MISSIONS. 

In 1882 an arrangement was made with the American Board by 
which it transferred to the Association its Indian missions in this 
-country, and the Association withdrew from missions in foreign 
lands. This simplified the work of both societies and avoided the 




AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. I£ • 

necessity of a double appeal to the same constituency forthesamet 
objects. For six years prior to the transfer of missions, the As-, 
sociation had sustained a few missionaries and teachers among 
the Indians, in connection with its nomination and care for- 
agencies. At the time of the transfer these consisted of Rev. 
Myron Eells, son of the venerable pioneer missionary, Rev. Cush-- 
ing Eells, D.D., and a teacher at Skokomish, W. T.; Rev. S. G.. 
Wright, missionary at Leech Lake, Minn., and Rev. H. T. Cow¬ 
ley, missionary at Spokan Falls, W. T. The Association also aided, 
in sustaining Indian pupils at Hampton, Va. The transfer from 
the Board greatly enlarged the Indian .work of the Association,^ 
committing to its care the mission and school at the Santee 
Agency, Neb., with 15 missionaries and teachers, 5 native pastors, 
and teachers, and 5 workers in the Industrial Department; 
the Fort Sully mission and school with one missionary, two teach¬ 
ers and six native teachers, with outlying stations on the Cheyenne 
and White rivers ; and the mission and school at Fort Berthold, 
Dak., with one missionary, one teacher and three assistant mission¬ 
aries. 

The missions thus received from the American Board had been, 
founded by another venerable and esteemed pioneer missionary,^ 
the late Rev. S. R. Riggs, D.D., and they are now carried forward, 
by his two sons, Rev. Alfred L. Riggs and Rev. Thomas L. Riggs., 
Since these missions and schools came under the care of the Asso-- 
ciation the facilities and force of workers have been increased., 
A large dining hall is in process of completion at the Santee 
Agency, with dining-room accommodations for over 200 boarders.. 
A very well arranged and commodious dormitory has been erected 
at Oahe (Fort Sully) at a cost of over $4,000 ; and new buildings, 
are completed or under construction at several other points among 
the great Sioux tribe of Indians. A Government school has been, 
established among the Poncas, near the Santee Agency, where our- 
missionary, Rev. J. E. Smith, maintains Sabbath services and 
teaches the school. Arrangements have also been made by which, 
during the past year, the Association has sustained, the ; teachers in. 
the Indian Department of the University of' Neiy- Mexico, at 
Santa Fe. A new life seems to be inspired at this, date (1886)* 
in all our work among the Indians. 

THE TRANSFERRED FOREIGN MISSIONS. 

At the close of the war the Association retained- of; its foreign 


14 


HISTORY OF THE 


missions only those in West Africa, Jamaica, the Sandwich Islands, 
Siam, and one missionary among the Indians. At the Annual Meet¬ 
ing of 1873 ^ was voted to confine the foreign mission work of the 
Association to Africa. This was done at once, except in re¬ 
gard to the missions in Jamaica, where local reasons deferred 
the completion of the arrangement for a time. The mission in 
Africa was much weakened by sickness and death, and in 1877 the 
new policy of sending colored missionaries thither from our schools 
in the South, was inaugurated with a success that was modified 
only by the want of experience and maturity of character in the 
young missionaries. Up to the time of the transfer fourteen such 
missionaries had been sent to Africa. In 1879 the gift of $15,000 
by Mr. Robert Arthington, of Leeds, England, supplemented by 
other donations from Great Britain and America, encouraged the 
Association to undertake a mission on the Upper Nile Basin, in 
Africa. In 1881 Rev. Henry M. Ladd and E. E. Snow, M.D., 
made an exploration in the locality designated by Mr. Arthington ; 
but the fanatical war of the Mahdi broke out while they were 
there, and they narrowly escaped with their lives. Under the 
agreement with the American Board and in view of the troubled 
condition of that region, the Association arranged with the donors 
to withdraw from the proposed mission, and it holds the funds in 
readiness to be turned over to any missionary society that has the 
faith and experience to carry it forward, under the approval of Mr. 
Arthington and the British donors. We trust the time maybe near 
at hand when the work may be begun with the prospect of success, 
under the Divine blessing. 

In making the exchange, the American Board, having under¬ 
taken recently a new mission on the western coast of Africa, de¬ 
clined to take our Mendi Mission. Hence to the satisfaction of all 
parties this mission was transferred to the United Brethren in Christ, 
a body of Christians who have long had a mission contiguous to it 
and between whose missionaries and ours the relations have always 
been of the most harmonious and fraternal character. With the 
mission the Association also transferred to the United Brethren 
for five years the avails of about $100,000, the gift of the late Rev. 
Charles Avery, and also the use of the steamer John Brown, built 
for the Mendi mission. At the expiration of the five years, the 
Mendi Mission is to remain in the hands of the United Brethren, 
but the avails of the Avery fund are to be given to the American 
Board for the benefit of its missions in Africa. In the early part 


AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. 


*5 


of the year 1886 the Mission of the United Brethren finding that 
it had not sufficient use for the steamer, it was then offered to the 
American Board and declined for the same reason, and in March 
it was transferred to the trustees of Bishop Taylor’s mission on 
the Congo. 


ARRANGEMENT WITH THE A. H. M. S. 

Questions having arisen respecting the fields occupied by the 
American Home Missionary Society and the American Missionary 
Association, a committee of ten persons was chosen by the two 
societies, to whom the matter was referred. This committee, con¬ 
sisting of Rev. J. E. Twitched, D. D., Rev. Lyman Abbott, D. D., 
Rev. Geo. L. Walker, D. D., A. S. Barnes, Esq., and S. B. Capen, 
Esq., on the part of the A. H. M. S., and of Rev. J. L. Withrow, 
D. D., Rev. Washington Gladden, D. D., Rev. D. O. Mears, D. D., 
Pres. S. C. Bartlett and Rev. W. H. Ward, D. D., on the part of 
the Association, met in Springfield, Mass., Dec. n, 1883, and after 
careful deliberation agreed unanimously upon several recommen¬ 
dations as a basis of mutual co-operation. These recommenda¬ 
tions were subsequently more fully considered by the Executive 
Committees of the two societies, and a paper was drawn up 
enlarging with practical details the basis agreed upon at Spring- 
field. 

This paper was adopted by both societies in 1884, and may be 
thus briefly summarized : Both societies are national ; the prin¬ 
cipal work of the A. H. M. S. is church planting in the West and 
Southwest; its school work is exceptional, and whenever it can 
be properly done, is to be transferred to the Association ; the field 
of the A. M. A. is educational and church work in the South among 
both races, and also among the Indians, and the Chinese on the 
Pacific Coast ; neither society shall establish churches in localities 
occupied by the other without mutual conference and agreement; 
transfers of work may be made and a common superintendent 
may be employed ; neither society will sustain a church that will 
not admit to membership colored persons suitably qualified ; the 
contributions for the South shall flow mainly through the channels 
of the A. M. A., and a large share of the funds of the A. H. M. 
S. shall be spent in the West and Southwest. 


i6 


HISTORY OF THE 


CHINESE IN AMERICA. 

The American Missionary Association was one of the pioneers 
in mission service among the Chinese immigrants to California. 
As early as 1852 Rev. S. V. Blakeslee, under the auspices of the 
Association, undertook to reach and save these heathen strangers on 
a plan substantially the same as that which in later years is proving' 
its wisdom by its success—that is, to take advantage of their desire 
to learn the English languageto introduce them to the knowledge of 
the Scriptures, instead of requiring their teachers to learn Chinese. 
But Mr. Blakeslee, finding that the Presbyterians were already on 
the ground, and were prepared to occupy it with special facilities, 
at length resigned, and the field was fraternally yielded to them. 
As, however, the number of Chinese immigrants increased, and as 
they were exposed to the same persecution as that endured by the 
other colored races in this country, the Association resumed its work 
among them. In 1870 Rev. John Kimball was appointed Superin¬ 
tendent, assisted by a local “ Advisory Board.” He had under his 
care that year 5 teachers. After carrying on the work successfully 
for four years, he resigned, and the present efficient Superintendent, 
Rev. W. C. Pond, pastor of the Bethany Church, San Francisco, 
was appointed to the position. In 1875 a new impulse was given 
to the work by the organization of the “ California Chinese Mis¬ 
sion,” in connection with the General Association of California, and 
as an auxiliary to the American Missionary Association. It secures 
some funds in aid of the work, and its officers are the valuable 
counselors of the Superintendent. 

The last annual report (1885) gives the number of teachers 34 
and schools 18, located at Alameda, Alturas, Fresno, Marysville, 
Oakland, Oroville, Petaluma, Sacramento, San Diego, Santa Bar¬ 
bara, Santa Cruz, Stockton, Tulare, and five in San Francisco. 

The Mission has been greatly blessed in turning these strangers 
from their idolatry to the worship of the true God. It is now 
undergoing the severe strain of not only overcoming the depravity 
of the heathen heart, but of that depravity aggravated by the 
bitter persecution that comes from the hands of nominal Chris¬ 
tians. 

The converted Chinamen have long desired the establishment 
of missions in their native country, to which, if they should return 
thither, they might resort as a Christian home, and from which 
they might go forth for mission work among their countrymen.- 


AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. 17 

As the Association has withdrawn from missions abroad, it is 
gratifying to state that the American Board in 1882 founded such 
a mission at Hong Kong, to which the brethren of the “ Chinese 
Christian Association ” contributed $700 at the outset. 


BUREAU OF WOMAN’S WORK. 

When, in 1861, the Association entered upon its large mission 
field in the South, the help of Christian women became necessary. 
As teachers and missionaries they have done a great share of the 
work among the Negroes, and as in each succeeding year hun¬ 
dreds of these brave women went out from the churches, a wide¬ 
spread interest was felt in their self-denying labors, leading to 
the organization of sewing circles and freedmen’s aid societies. But 
the work of uplifting was found to be a slower process than that of 
emancipating, and enthusiasm waned. Frequent appeals were 
therefore made for the aid of Christian women of the North, and 
in 1873 a form of constitution was prepared for the organization 
in the churches of women’s societies auxiliary to the Association. 

At the Annual Meeting of the Association in 1874, the ladies 
held a conference upon the best methods of co-operation. Fre¬ 
quent reports of woman’s work were made in our monthly mag¬ 
azine, and in 1877 there began specific work on the part of the 
ladies in the churches for the support of special lady missionaries. 
At the Annual Meeting in 1878 the Association added to its pro¬ 
gramme a woman’s meeting, at which ladies from the South gave 
reports of the condition of the field. During the next few years 
marked progress was made in the special effort for the support of 
lady missionaries, and missionary operations were enlarged by 
more direct effort for women among the blacks, for the mountain 
people of the South, and by the adoption of the Indian field. A 
corresponding growth of interest was manifested in the North. 

The work at length assumed such proportions as to call for a 
special department, and experience and knowledge of the field 
made it evident that this department could be best utilized by 
forming it not outside, but within the direct control of the Asso ¬ 
ciation, thus adjusting it fully to our established methods. 
Accordingly in 1883 the Bureau of Womans Work was formed. 



i8 


HISTORY OF THE 


This Bureau inaugurated no new organization. It simply gave 
a more direct and efficient form to a large work already in hand, 
and added no increase of machinery and but little expense. 

The object of the Bureau is to present truthfully the condition 
of the women for whom the Association labors, and to solicit 
woman’s aid in their behalf, urging a cash contribution from the 
women of every Congregational Church as well as the usual help 
of the needle. Accordingly a system of monthly letters from the 
missionary teachers in the field was planned, and a proposition 
was made to women at the North to take a definite part in sustain¬ 
ing these field workers, in sums ranging from $20 each to the 
amount of full support, the ladies thus contributing to have their 
special missionary from whom they should hear regularly. 

The Results.— During the past year (1885) the ladies of the 
Congregational churches have sustained the following schools and 
teachers : 

For the Negroes: One school in McIntosh, Ga., 3 teachers ; one 
school in Thomasville, Ga., 3 teachers ; 3 missionary teachers in 
Texas, 2 in Mississippi, 3 in Georgia, 2 in Alabama, 3 in Tennessee, 

1 in Louisiana, 1 in North Carolina. 

For the Mountain Whites: 2 missionary teachers in Tennessee, 

1 in Kentucky. 

For the Indians: 3 missionary teachers in Nebraska ; 3 in Dakota. 

An interesting feature of the work of this Bureau has been the 
securing of the help of the freedwomen for those more needy than 
themselves. It was proposed to them to aid in the support of a 
missionary to the Indians at Fort Berthold, Dak. The response 
was prompt and hearty, the Ladies’ Missionary Association of 
Alabama alone pledging $100. One little mission band of colored 
women pledged a share of $20, and paid it in installments of $2 per 
month, the money being earned at the washtub or by -other hard 
work, and needed in their own families for what we would deem 
the necessaries of life. But it was a revelation to many of them 
that in our own country there was any people as needy as them¬ 
selves and in greater spiritual darkness. 

The Woman’s Bureau has proved an effective agency in all our 
work, opening new channels for the missionary activity of the women 
of the North, imparting direct information, assigning special fields, 
and strengthening the bond between the missionaries and the 
churches. 


AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. 


19 


FINANCES. 

The income of the Association was small at first. None of the 
large denominations of Christians indorsed it, and few of the 
churches had it on the list for regular contributions. Its donors 
were mainly individuals,of strong anti-slavery convictions. The 
influences which gradually produced the increase of its resources 
were the growth of the anti-slavery sentiment and the increased 
demand for mission work that should lend no sanction to slavery ; 
the emancipation of the slaves and the call for a large effort for 
their enlightenment ; a renewed zeal for African evangelization ; 
an interest in the Indians and Chinamen on the Pacific coast ; and 
the opening avenues for work among the white people of the 
South. Special agencies assisted in gathering the results which 
these influences produced. 

Marked by decades, the statement may thus be summarized : 

First, Decade, 1847-1856. The receipts for the first year were 
$r3,°33, rising somewhat steadily to $49,818 in the last year. 
Several auxiliary societies formed in different parts of the country 
aided in collecting funds. 

Second Decade, 1857-1866. The first seven years showed 
little advance in receipts, but the closing years witnessed a decided 
increase. Beginning with $47,190 in 1857, the figures sprang up 
to $95,395 in 1864, to $134,181 in 1865 and to $253,045 in 1866, 
the year after the war. The aid of the Free-Will Baptists, the 
Wesleyans, the Congregationalists in this country and friends in 
Great Britain, contributed to this increase. 

Third Decade, 1867-1876. This was a marked era in the 
financial history of the Association, showing in the first five years 
a great enlargement of income, reaching $420,769 in 1870, fol¬ 
lowed by a growing indebtedness and a diminished income. The 
debt touched its highest point, $96,559, in 1875, and the income in 
1876 was only $264,709. 

The sources of the increased receipts in the first five years were 
the same that yielded so largely in the closing years of the last 
decade, and in addition to them were the large gifts of the Freed- 
men’s Bureau and the ingatherings of the Jubilee Singers. 

The debt is traceable in part to the nature of the heavy receipts 
of the first five years. Those coming from the Freedmen’s Bureau 
could be expended only in buildings (/. e., in new plant). The 


20 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. 

necessities of the work at that time also requiring permanent insti¬ 
tutions , the current expenses were greatly increased. The touch¬ 
ing songs of the Jubilee Singers began to yield large returns in 
1872, but these were also used in the purchase of land and in the 
erection of Jubilee Hall. Our treasury was, moreover, drawn 
upon to some extent to supplement the earnings of the Singers in 
completing the building, as well as to meet the increased current 
expenses of the institution as thus enlarged. On the other hand, 
the general receipts of the Association were heavily reduced, 
owing to the discouragement of the North in regard to the meas¬ 
ures of reconstruction, and to the unusual stringency of the times. 

Fourth Decade, 1877-1886. This decade was begun by 
determined efforts for the payment of the debt. Special appeals 
were made, salaries were reduced, calls for enlargement were 
refused, assets in the form of bonds and lands which had come to 
us through gift or legacy were sold, and in 1879, by the blessing 
of God, the debt was fully paid ! Recently the large gift of Mrs. 
Stone for new buildings so greatly needed for the advancement 
of the work, and the acceptance from the American Board of its 
entire Indian Missions, with their urgent call for enlargement, 
have once more thrown the balance on the wrong side of the 
ledger, but the same Divine aid will yet bring deliverance ! 

The point has been reached in the history of the Association 
when endowments are needed for its schools and funds for the 
steady enlargement of its church work, for its operations in the 
mountain regions of the South, and for active co-operation with 
the strong effort now making to civilize the Indians and to save 
the persecuted Chinamen on the Pacific coast. The call to the 
Association is still to preach the Gospel to the poor. 


OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION. 


21 


OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION. 


Death or 

Election. Resignation. 


Presidents. 

1846 Hon. Wm. Jackson, 1854 

1854 Hon. Lawrence Brainard, 1859 
1859 Rev. David Thurston, 1865 
1865 Rev. E. N. Kirk, D. D. 1874 

1874 Hon. Wm. A. Buckingham, 1875 

1875 Hon. E. S. Tobey, 18S1 

1881 Hon. Wm. B. Washburn, 

LL.D. 


Vice-Presidents. 

1846 Rev. Theo. S. Wright, 1847 

1846 Hon. F. D. Parish, 1883 

1846 Prof. C. D. Cleveland, 1869 

1846 Rev. David Thurston, 1859 

1846 Rev. Sam’lR. Ward, 1851 

1847 Rev. J. W. C. Pennington, 1848 

1848 Rev. G. W. Perkins, 1854 

1851 Rev. S. E. Cornish, 1859 

1853 Rev. Jonathan Blanchard, 1878 

1854 Hon. Wm. Jackson, 1855 

1855 J. P. Williston, Esq. 1871 

1859 Arthur Tappan, Esq. 1865 

1859 Hon. Jacob Butler, 1871 

1859 Hon. E. D. Holton, 1883 

1862 Rev. John Lowry, 1865 

1863 Hon. Wm. Claflin, 1883 

1864 Geo. Shepard, D.D. 1868 

1864 Stephen Thurston, D.D. 1883 

1864 Prof. Sam! Harris, 1883 

1864 Rev. Leonard S. Parker, 1870 

1864 Silas McKeen, D.D. 1878 

1864 E. N. Kirk, D.D. 1865 

1864 Hon. I. Washburn, 1869 

1864 Wm. C. Chapin, Esq. 1883 

1864 S. W. S. Dutton, D.D. 1866 

1864 Hon. John P. Elton, 1865 

1864 Hon. A. C’ Barstow, 1883 

1864 Leonard D. Swain, D.D. 1869 

1864 J. P. Thompson, D.D. 1867 


Death or 


Election. Resignation. 

1864 Ray Palmer, D.D. 1883 

1864 A. H. Porter, Esq. 1869 

1864 Charles B. Boynton, D.D. 1868 

1864 J. M. Sturtevant, D.D. 1883 

1864 Ed ward Beecher, D. D. 1871 

1879 Edward Beecher, D.D. 1883 

1864 W. W. Patton, D.D. 1883 

1864 Hon. Seymour Straight, 1883 

1865 Lewis Tappan, Esq. 1873 

1865 Cyrus Prindle, D.D. 1867 

1865 D. M. Graham, D.D. 1878 

1866 Horace Hallock, Esq. 1880 

1866 F. A. Noble, D.D. 1869 

1878 F. A. Noble, D.D. 

1866 W. T. Eustis, D.D. 1883 

1867 Rev. Adam Crooks, 1871 

1868 Rev. J. J. Smith, 1871 

1868 Gen. C. B. Fisk, 1875 

1868 Rev. Sella Martin, 1869 

1869 Cyrus W. Wallace, D.D. 1883 

1869 Thatcher Thayer, D.D. 1883 

1869 Edward Hawes, D. D. 1883 

1869 Hon. Thaddeus Fairbanks, 1883 

1869 Hon. E. S. Tobey, 1875 

1882 Hon. E. S. Tobey, 1883 

1869 Samuel D. Porter, E q. 1880 

1869 Gen. O. O. Howard, 1871 

1875 Gen. O. O. Howard, 1883 

1869 M. McG. Dana, D.D. 1883 

1869 Rev. Edward L. Clark, 1878 

1869 J. E. Roy, D.D. 1870 

1869 G. F. Magoon, D.D. 1883 

1869 Prof. Charles Seecombe, 1871 

1870 Col. C. G. Hammond, 1883 

1870 Edward Spalding, M D. 1883 

1871 George B. Bacon, D.D. 1876 

1871 David Ripley, Esq. 1880 

1871 Wm. M. Barbour, D.D. 1883 

1871 Hon. Henry Wilson, 1876 

1871 Rev. W. L. Gage, 1883 

1871 A. S. Hatch, Esq. 1883 




22 


OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION 


Death or 


Election. Resignation. 

1871 J. H. Fairchild, D.D. 1883 

1871 H. A. Stimson, D.D. 1883 

1871 J. W. Strong, D.D. 1880 

1871 Hon. W. A. Buckingham, 1874 

1871 Rev. Geo. Thacher, LL.D. 1879 

1871 A. L. Stone, D.D. 1883 

1871 G. H. Atkinson, D.D. 1883 

1871 J. E. Rankin, D.D. 1884 

1872 Rev. H. W. Beecher, 1883 

1872 Douglas Putnam, Esq. 1883 

1872 A. L. Chapin, D.D. 1883 

1872 S. D. Smith, Esq. 1883 

1873 Hon. E. P. Smith, 1876 

1873 Rev. H. M. Parsons, 1878 

1873 Peter Smith, Esq. . 1880 

1873 Dea. John C. Whitin, 1882 

1874 Hon. J. B. Grinnell, 1883 

1874 W. Patton, D.D. 1879 

1875 Rev. Wm. T. Carr, 1880 

1875 Rev. Horace Winslow, 1883 

1876 Sir Peter Coats, 1883 

1876 Henry Allon, D.D. 1883 

1876 Wm. E. Whiting, Esq. 1882 

1876 J. M. Pinkerton, Esq. 1881 

1876 Daniel Hand, Esq. 1883 

1878 A. L. Williston, Esq. 1881 

1878 A. F. Beard, D.D. 1883 

1878 Frederick Billings, Esq. 1883 

1878 Joseph Carpenter, Esq. 1883 

1879 Andrew Lester, Esq. 1880 

1879 E. A. Graves, Esq. 1883 

3879 E. P. Goodwin, D.D. 1883 

1879 C. L. Goodell, D.D. ; 1886 

1879 J. W. Scoville, Esq. . 1883 

1879 E. W. Blatchford, Esq. 1883 

1879 C. D. Talcott, Esq. 1882 

1879 John K. McLean, D.D. 1883 

1879 Richard Cordley, D.D. > 1883 

1880 W. H. Willcox, D.D. 1883 

1880 G. B. Willcox, D.D. 1883 

1880 Wm. M. Taylor, D.D. 1883 

1880 Rev. Geo. M. Boynton,. 1883 

1880 E. B. Webb, D.D. 1883 

1880 Hon. C. I. Walker, 1883 

1880 A JL Ross, D.D. 1883 

1881 L. T. Chamberlain, D.D. 1883 

1881 Hon., Joshua L. Chamber- 

lain, 1883 

1881 Alex. McKenzie, D.D. 

1881 Hon. Nelson Dingley, Jr. 1883 

1883 A. J. F. Behrends, D.D. 

1884 D. O. Mears, D.D. „ , 


Death or 

Election. Resignation. 


Corresponding Secretaries. 


1847 

Geo. Whipple, D.D. 

1876 

1853 

Rev. S. S. Jocelyn, 

1863 

1864 

M. E. Strieby, D.D. 


1866 

Rev. J. R. Shipherd, 

1868 

1868 

W. W. Patton, D.D. 

1870 

Associate Corresponding Secretaries. 

1S85 

James Powell, D.D. 


1885 

A. F. Beard, D.D. 


Assistant Corresponding Secretary. 

18S3 

James Powell, D.D. 

1885 


t * 

Recording Secretaries. 


1846 

Rev. S. S. Jocelyn, 

185a 

1853 

Langdon S. Ward, Esq. 

1854 

1854 

Rev. Henry Belden, 

1875 

1875 

Geo. Whipple, D.D. 

1876 

1876 

M. E. Strieby, D.D. 



Treasurers. 


1846 

Lewis Tappan, Esq. 

1865 

1866 

Edgar Ketchum, Esq. 

1879 

1879 

H. W. Hubbard, Esq. 

•- 


Assistant Treasurers. 

— 

1865 

Wm. E. Whiting, Esq. 

1876 

1876 

H. W. Hubbard, Esq. 

“ ( * 

1879 

; ■ 

Auditors. 


1848 

William E. Whiting, Esq. 

1850 

1857 

William E. Whiting, Esq. 

1859 

1848 

Rev. Sam’l E. Cornish, 

1849 

1849 

Rev. Chas. B. Ray, 

1850 

1850 

Anthony Lane, Esq. 

1857 

1859 

Anthony Lane, Esq. 

1862 

1865 

Anthony Lane, Esq. 

1875 

1850 

James 0. Bennett, Esq. 

1876 

1862 

R. R. Graves, Esq. 

1865 

1875 

Wilmot Williams, Esq. 

1877 

1876 

S. V. White, Esq. 

1877 

1877 

Henry Parsons, Esq. 

1878 

1878 

Chas, L. Mead, Esq. 

1881 

1878 

James T. Leavitt, Esq. 

1880 

1880 

M. F. Reading, Esq. 

1883 

1881 

Wm. A Nash, Esq. . . . 

1884 




OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION 


2 3 



Death 

or 


Death 

or 

Election. Resignation. 

Election. Resignation. 

1883 

W. H. Rogers, Esq. 


1864 

Samuel Holmes, Esq 


1884 

Peter McCartee, Esq. 


1864 

Rev. Sella Martin, 

1863 




1864 

Rev. S. W. Magill, 

1866 


Executive Committee. 


1864 

Cyrus Prindle, D.D. 

1865 




1865 

S. N. Davis, 

1870 

1846 

Arthur Tappan, Esq. 

1857 

1865 

J. B. Beadle, Esq. 

1877 

1846 

Rev. Theodore S. Wright, 

1847 

1866 

Edgar Ketchum, Esq. 

1868 

1846 

Rev. SimeonS. Jocelyn, 

1855 

1879 

Edgar Ketchum, Esq. 

1881 

1863 

Rev. SimeonS. Jocelyn, 

1870 

1866 

M. E. Strieby, D.D. 

1867 

1846 

Rev. Amos A. Phelps, 

1847 

1866 

Geo. Whipple, D.D. 

1867 

1846 

Rev. Chas. B. Ray, 

1856 

1868 

G. D. Pike, D.D. 

1872 

1846 

Rev. J. R. Johnson, 

1847 

1868 

Hon. E. P. Smith, 

1871 

1846 

Rev. S. E. Cornish, 

1855 

1869 

A. S. Barnes, Esq. 


1846 

Wm. H. Pillow, 

1848 

1869 

Rev. Martin L. Williston, 

1872 

1846 

Wm. E. Whiting, Esq. 

1872 

1869 

G. B. Willcox, D.D. 

1880 

1846 

Rev. J. W. C. Pennington, 

1847 

1870 

Rev. E. M. Cravath, 

1872 

1848 

Rev. J. W. C. Pennington, 1851 

1870 

H. M. Storrs, D.D. 

1875 

1846 

Rev. Josiah Brewer, 

1863 

1871 

Washington Gladden, D.D. 

1875 

1846 

Rev. Edward Weed, 

184S 

1871 

R. G. Hutchins, D.D. 

1872 

1847 

Rev. Henry H. Garnet, 

1848 

1871 

Stephen Ballard, Esq. 

1872 

1856 

Rev. Henry H. Garnet, 

1861 

1871 

Gen. O. O. Howard, 

1875 

1847 

Wm. Harned, 

1853 

1872 

Edward Beecher, D.D. 

1879 

1847 

Rev. Sherlock Bristol, 

1848 

1872 

Rev. S. B. Halliday. 


1847 

Anthony Lane, Esq. 

1856 

1872 

Dwight Johnson, Esq. 

1874 

1861 

Anthony Lane, Esq. 

1863 

1875 

Gen. C. B. Fisk. 


1848 

Thos. Ritter, M.D. 

1876 

1875 

Chas. L. Mead, Esq. 


1848 

J. 0. Bennett, Esq. 

1876 

1876 

Rev. Geo. M. Boynton, 

1880 

1848 

M. S. Scudder, 

1852 

1876 

E. A. Graves, Esq. 

1879 

1851 

Rev. J. A. Paine, 

1855 

1876 

John H. Washburn, Esq. 


1852 

Rev. C. B. Dana, 

1853 

1877 

Rev. A. P. Foster. 


1853 

Rev. Henry Belden, 

1875 

1879 

Gen. C. T. Christensen, 

1883 

1853 

J. R. Lee, M.D. 

1855 

1879 

Chas. A. Hull, Esq. 

1884 

1855 

D. M. Graham, D.D. 

1861 

1879 

Wm. T. Pratt, Esq. 

1881 

1864 

D. M. Graham, D.D. 

1865 

1879 

J. A. Shoudy, Esq. 

1881 

1855 

Rev. J. N. Freeman, 

1860 

1880 

H. L. Clapp, Esq. 

1881 

1855 

Geo. H. White, Esq. 

1861 

1880 

Rev. J. A. Hamilton, 

1882 

1855 

Wm. B. Brown, D.D. 

1880 

1880 

S. S. Mai pies. Esq. 


1856 

W. T. Dawley, 

1858 

1881 

Lyman Abbott, D.D. 


1857 

Rev. Almon Underwood, 

1858 

1881 

Franklin Fairbanks, Esq. 

1883 

1858 

Samuel Wilde, Esq. 

1862 

1881 

Wm. H. Ward, D.D. 


1858 

Alonzo S. Ball, M.D. 

1884 

1881 

A. L. Williston, Esq. 

1883 

1860 

T. C. Fanning, Esq. 

1869 

1883 

Rev. J. R. Danforth. 


1861 

Capt. C. B. Wilder, 

1864 

1883 

Edward Hawes, D.D. 

1884 

1861 

Rev. John Lowrey, 

1862 

1883 

Rev. S. H. Virgin, 

1885 

1862 

R. R. Graves, Esq. 

1863 

1883 

J. L. Withrow, D.D. 


1862 

Rev. J. M. Holmes, 

1869 

1884 

E. B. Monroe, Esq. 


1863 

Andrew Lester, Esq. 

1879 

1884 

J. E. Rankin, D.D. 


1863 

Thos. S. Berry, Esq. 

1864 

1885 

E. L. Champlin, Esq. 





THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. 


STATISTICS FOR 1885. 

Churches. — In the South: In District of Columbia, 1 ; Virginia, 1 ; North 
Carolina, 18; South Carolina, 2; Georgia, 14; Kentucky, 10; Tennessee, 13; Ala¬ 
bama. 17 ; Florida, 1 ; Kansas, 3 ; Arkansas, 2 ; Louisiana, 19 ; Mississippi, 7 
Texas, 9. Among the Indians : 5. Total, 117. 

Institutions Founded, Fostered or Sustained in the South.— Chart red: 
Talladega, Ala.; Atlanta, Ga.; Nashville, Tenn.; Tougaloo, Miss.; New Orleans,. 
La., and Austin, Tex.—6. Graded or Normal Schools: Wilmington, N. C.; 
Charleston, Greenwood, S. C.; Savannah, Macon, Atlanta, McIntosh, Ga.; 
Mobile, Athens, Selma, Ala.; Memphis, Jonesboro, Tenn.; Williamsburg, Lexing¬ 
ton, Ky.—14. Other Schools : 36. Total, 56. 

Teachers, Missionaries and Assistants.— At the South, 346; among the 
Chinese, 38; among the Indians, 54. Total, 438. Students. —In theology, 96 ; 
law, 67; in college course, 52; in other studies, 8,608; among the Chinese, 1,457; 
among the Indians, 706. Total, 10,986. Scholars taught by former pupils of our 
schools, estimated at 200,000. 


WANTS. 

1. A steady increase of regular income to keep pace with the growing work. 
This increase can only be reached by regular and larger contributions from the 
churches, the feeble as well as the strong. 

2. Additional Buildings for our higher educational institutions, to accommo¬ 
date the increasing number of students ; Meeting Houses for the new churches 
we are organizing ; more ministers, cultured and pious, for these churches. 

3. Help for Young Men, to be educated as ministers and teachers here and 
missionaries to Africa—a pressing want. 

4. Funds for Industrial Departments— to purchase farm implements, 

plows, harrows and cultivators; to erect shops and furnish tools and materials for 
instruction and use in the mechanic arts, for carpenters, blacksmiths, tin-men, 
harness and shoemakers ; and to supply the girls’ industrial rooms with sewing, 
and knitting material. / 




CONSTITUTION. 



Art. I. This Society shall be called the American Missionary Association. 

Art. II. The object of this Association shall be to conduct Christian missionary 
and educational operations and diffuse a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures in our 
own country and other countries which are destitute of them, or which present 
open and urgent fields of effort. 

Art. III. Members of evangelical churches may be constituted .members of 
this Association for life by the payment of thirty dollars into its treasury, with 
the written declaration at the time or times of payment that the sum is to be 
applied to constitute a designated person a life member ; and such membership 
shall begin sixty days after the payment shall have been completed. Other per¬ 
sons, by the payment of the same sum, may be made life members, without the 
privilege of voting. 

Every evangelical church which has within a year contributed to the funds of 
the Association, and every State Conference or Association of such churches, may 
appoint two delegates to the Annual Meeting of the Association ; such delegates, 
duly attested by credentials, shall be members of the Association for the year for 
which they were thus appointed. 

Art. IV. The Annual Meeting of the Association shall be held in the month of 
October or November at such time and place as may be designated by the Asso¬ 
ciation, or, in case of its failure to act, by the Executive Committee, by notice 
printed in the official publicatioff of the Association for the preceding month. 

Art . V. The officers of the Association shall be a President, five Vice-Presidents, 
a Corresponding Secretary or Secretaries, a Recording Secretary, a Treasurer, 
Auditors?, and an Executive Committee of fifteen members, all of whom shall be 
elected by ballot. 

At the first Annual Meeting after the adoption of this Constitution, five mem¬ 
bers of the Executive Committee shall be elected for the term of cue year, five for 
two years and five for three years, and at each subsequent Annual Meeting five 
members shall be elected for the full term of three years, and such others as shall 
be required to fill vacancies. 

Art. VI. To the Executive Committee shall belong the collecting and disbursing 
of funds, the appointing, counseling, sustaining and dismissing of missionaries 
and agents, and the selection of missionary fields. They shall have authority to 
fill all vacancies in office occurring between the Annual Meetings ; to apply to any 
Legislature for acts of incorporation, or conferring corporate powers ; to make 
provision when necessary for disabled missionaries and for the widows and chil¬ 
dren of deceased missionaries, and in general to transact a 1 such business as usually 
appertains to the Executive Committees of missionary and other benevolent socie¬ 
ties. The acts of the Committee shall be subject to the revision of the Annual 
Meeting. 

Five members of the Committee constitute a quorum for transacting business. 

Art. VII. No person shall be made an officer of this Association who is not a 
member of some evangelical church. 

Art. VIII. Missionary bodies and churches or individuals may appoint and sus¬ 
tain missionaries of their own, through the agency of the Executive Committee, 
on terms mutually agreed upon. 

Art. IX. No amendment shall be made to this Constitution except by the vote 
of two-thirds of the members present at an Annual Meeting and voting, the 
amendment having been approved by the vote of a majority at the previous 
Annual Meeting. 



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